Chapter 172: Park Mystery Case

The return journey was very smooth, only delayed a little while in the cave.

This time he didn't encounter Ma Lu, and Li Banfeng walked out step by step by himself.

Sitting at the foot of the cliff, Li Banfeng felt like his two legs were about to fall off his hips, but his cultivation base had indeed increased quite a bit. Calculating by time, it could have been more than three months.

Taking advantage of the rest time, Li Banfeng paired it with a Blue Leaf Pill and ate another Golden Origin Pill. Once he had recovered enough, he hurried on his way.

Passing through Blood Tooth Mountain, Li Banfeng still took the small path that the Drenched Monster had taken originally. He didn't encounter any Blood Tooth Monsters on the road. Once out of Three Plate River, Li Banfeng was no longer restricted, ran wildly, and returned to Li Valley.

He originally wanted to go to Feng's Grocery Store first to see if Shopkeeper Feng could get a travel permit to Green Water Bay. Traveling in the New Land was truly somewhat dangerous.

Just as he arrived in front of Yu's Cloth Store, Yu Nan was standing at the entrance, saying with a face full of joy: "Seventh Master, you really came."

Li Banfeng stopped at the entrance of the cloth store, looking at Yu Nan in surprise: "How did you know I was coming?"

Yu Nan didn't speak, pulled Li Banfeng's hand, walked into the shop, entered the backyard, and opened a room alone. Inside sat an old man with disheveled clothes and gray hair.

Mr. Yao!

He was actually waiting for Li Banfeng at Yu's Cloth Store.

It was he who knew Li Banfeng had already arrived at Medicine King Valley and had Yu Nan wait at the entrance of the cloth store.

Yu Nan brought the person and hurriedly left the room. Mr. Yao took out a wine jar, poured two bowls of wine, and greeted Li Banfeng to sit down.

"Young man, this business trip was hard on you."

Li Banfeng shook his head slightly: "The business wasn't hard. Delivering medicine was never a difficult task; the hardship was all found by myself."

Yao Lao laughed: "That's not how you say it. If it weren't for you risking your life to control the insect disaster, Pan De, that old dog, would definitely have kept pestering.

If he had really been allowed to release the insects, who knows how many people in the entire Puluo Continent would have died.

I invited you here today, firstly to settle accounts with the Wine Gourd, because at the beginning I didn't know if you could get the matter done, so the Wine Gourd's contract remained in my hands.

Secondly, I want to give you an extra reward. What would you like?"

Li Banfeng shook his head: "You've already given everything you should have. I don't have anything I want."

"I said I would give, so I must give. Think carefully. I'll settle the matter with the Gourd first."

The Gourd rubbed against Li Banfeng, waiting for Li Banfeng's permission.

Li Banfeng placed the Gourd on the table.

"Do you need me to avoid it?" Li Banfeng was about to stand up, but saw Yao Lao wave his hand.

"Young man, just sit here. I only want to hear her talk about the process of exterminating the insects; I won't ask about other things."

The process of exterminating the insects was told to Yao Lao by Pan De. Yao Lao was afraid Pan De wouldn't tell the truth about some things, so he asked the Wine Gourd to verify it again.

The Wine Gourd described the process in detail. She only talked about the insect extermination. As for the Suishenju and everything inside the Suishenju, she didn't mention a single word.

The matter was clarified, and Yao Lao sighed lightly: "I knew it. There's no way for the poisons in this world to make a species extinct. In the end, we still have to rely on Green Flower's disciples."

After speaking, Yao Lao took out a piece of contract paper and burned it to ashes in front of Li Banfeng.

Li Banfeng was somewhat curious about the contract: "Do magic treasures and their masters have to sign contracts?"

Yao Lao shook his head: "Low-level magic treasures don't need to. For high-level magic treasures, if one can control them, one doesn't need a contract either.

The Gourd has followed me for so many years. To speak of control, I really don't have that confidence. To speak of friendship, I really don't trust friendship."

The contract was destroyed, and the Gourd returned to Li Banfeng's side.

As for whether Li Banfeng signed a contract with the Wine Gourd, Yao Lao didn't ask, nor should he interfere.

"Have you thought about the reward? Don't say you don't want it. I hate owing favors the most."

Li Banfeng really thought of one thing: "I got an Intestinal-Rolling Silkworm and want to give it to a friend. I don't know what preparations I should make."

"Intestinal-Rolling Silkworm?" Yao Lao's brows furrowed. "Pan De gave it to you, right?"

Li Banfeng nodded.

Yao Lao gave a bitter laugh: "That old thing, he just doesn't do human things. You aren't a food cultivator, so giving this thing to you is clearly looking for trouble for you."

"I want to give it to a food cultivator."

"You're talking about that fatty? His cultivation base is still at the first layer, right?"

Li Banfeng nodded.

Yao Lao took out a bag of medicinal powder, then took a wine pot, poured the medicinal powder into the wine pot, and filled it with wine: "Have that fatty drink this pot of wine first, then have him eat the Intestinal-Rolling Silkworm.

Tell that fatty, if one day he can't hold on, come find me again. I can get the Intestinal-Rolling Silkworm out, but how to deal with it, he has to think of a way himself."

Can't hold on?

"Is it because he can't hold on against hunger?"

Yao Lao shook his head: "It's a good thing for a food cultivator to be hungry. Eating more makes the cultivation base grow faster. I'm worried his financial resources can't hold on. That fatty's head isn't bright, and he doesn't look like someone who can make money. In a year or half a year, he could eat himself into poverty."

Eating can also eat oneself into poverty?

Li Banfeng accepted the medicinal wine, drank a few cups with Yao Lao, and chatted for a few words.

Hearing a bell ring outside the door, Yao Lao stood up, wiped his mouth, and said: "I should go. There's a car coming to pick me up. You accompany that Yu girl to eat, drink, and sleep. She misses you quite a bit."

Li Banfeng answered very seriously: "Eating and drinking are easy to say, but is sleeping really appropriate?"

Yao Lao said righteously: "Why isn't it appropriate? Don't you sleep at night? Just sleep in the same quilt with her.

On such a cold day, it's warm for two people to squeeze together, and I didn't ask you to do anything else!"

"That's fine too." Li Banfeng agreed.

Yao Lao walked outside the cloth store and got into a rickshaw.

The rickshaw puller didn't ask for the destination, didn't say the price, pulled the rickshaw, and left.

Yao Lao took out the wine pot, took a big gulp, and asked: "Do you know where I'm going?"

The rickshaw puller laughed: "You've been out for so long, you should be going home."

Yao Lao took another big gulp: "Do you know where my home is?"

The rickshaw puller laughed again: "I know. I go for a stroll in front of your house when I have nothing to do."

Gulp, gulp!

Yao Lao drank the wine in the wine pot, wiped his mouth, and asked: "Let's discuss, can you change to another place to pull the rickshaw?"

The rickshaw puller shook his head: "No change. I just think your place is not bad."

Yao Lao took out another wine pot, drank a mouthful, and said: "My life is hard; you can't outlive me!"

The rickshaw puller was very optimistic about this: "I'm not in a hurry. I'll wait slowly. With your way of drinking every day, who knows which day you'll be gone."

Yuezhou Third Hospital.

He Jiaqing lay on the hospital bed without moving.

Dark Star Bureau security investigator Zou Guoming looked at the doorway for a moment, inquired about the condition, and left the hospital.

In the security team, he was the most outstanding and senior investigator. Because his head was very large and his shoulders were somewhat narrow, his body proportions looked a bit strange. The team gave him a nickname called "Seeing Datou."

When He Jiaqing first had the accident, Zou Guoming and two other team members were responsible for monitoring his condition twenty-four hours a day.

Unexpectedly, He Jiaqing had been in a coma for more than half a year. Seeing Datou couldn't keep staring here, but every two or three days, he would still come to the hospital to take a look.

This wasn't an order from the bureau; this was Seeing Datou's intuition. He always felt there was another hidden story behind He Jiaqing.

Coming here this time wasn't entirely for He Jiaqing. Next to Yuezhou Third Hospital was Huahu Park, one of the most famous parks in Yuezhou.

A disappearance case recently occurred in this park. The missing person was a female college student named Hu Lishan. She entered the park alone at eleven o'clock at night.

In the park's surveillance, there was footage of her entering the park, footage of her pacing in the woods, and footage of her dropping her phone, but there was no footage of her leaving the park.

She disappeared in the park. No person was found, only the phone she had abandoned.

From the phone information, it was learned that Hu Lishan had suffered setbacks in her emotions, which was very likely the reason she came to the park late at night.

Afterward, an investigation was conducted on her boyfriend. The emotional trifles were investigated very clearly, but this had no direct connection to the disappearance case.

Cases with no results from the investigation would be handed over to the Dark Star Bureau for handling. The Dark Star Bureau didn't focus on solving cases; they only needed to confirm one thing: whether the case was related to supernatural beings.

Seeing Datou actually wasn't interested in this case. He suspected Hu Lishan couldn't think straight for a moment and threw herself directly into Huahu.

But he followed the clues provided by the surveillance and circled around the park, feeling that the situation wasn't quite right.

He could hear some sounds, like the sound of a woman crying.

He could smell some scents, similar to the scent of fresh blood.

Seeing Datou was a fifth-layer combatant, which was what people in Puluo Continent often called a martial cultivator.

Although a martial artist's perception wasn't top-tier, it was still much stronger than that of ordinary people.

He followed the sounds and scents all the way, tracking to the vicinity of a Western-style house in the park.

The crying sound came from behind the Western-style house. Seeing Datou was about to go around to the back of the building when a harsh, sharp sound caused the crying to stop abruptly.

"Please look toward me, everyone. This Western-style house is the landmark building of Huahu Park..."

A tour guide was leading a group to visit.

Seeing Datou glanced at the tour guide and then walked to the back of the Western-style building.

The back of the building was empty; he didn't hear the crying again, nor did he smell the blood.

This was the awkward place for the Dark Star Bureau. They couldn't do things with great fanfare, and in the process of investigating clues, they were often subject to human interference.

But Seeing Datou had already determined that there was a problem with this park.

He found a hotel nearby, booked a room by the hour, rested for half a day, and at ten o'clock that night, he entered the park again.

Sniff! Sniff!

He soon heard the sound of sniffing, like someone sniffling because of the cold. Of course, it could also be someone sobbing.

Following the sniffing sound, he walked forward all the way. Seeing Datou saw the Western-style house again. He smelled a pungent scent of blood here, and the scent was much stronger than during the day.

Both the sound and the scent came from behind the building. Seeing Datou went around to the back of the Western-style building and saw a woman standing with her back to him.

Every time that woman sniffed, her shoulders would shrug, and her body would tremble accordingly; she was indeed sobbing.

She was wearing a denim jacket and jeans, exactly the same as the back view Hu Lishan had left on the surveillance.

Seeing Datou didn't approach rashly. As an experienced investigator, he knew that being able to see this scene meant his mission was already completed.

He took out his phone and called the bureau to request support, but after dialing several times, all he heard was a short, busy signal.

The call couldn't get through. It wasn't a problem with the bureau; it was that his own phone had no signal.

Encountering this sudden situation, Seeing Datou still didn't panic.

He took out another phone from his pocket, bit it with his teeth, pulled out the antenna, confirmed the antenna's direction, and called the bureau.

This was a satellite phone provided to investigators by the Dark Star Bureau. It was troublesome to use, but relatively reliable.

The number was dialed for a long time, but there was still no response.

Even the satellite phone couldn't get through?

Seeing Datou was a bit nervous.

He saw Hu Lishan walking forward.

Where was she going?

What was her condition now?

Was she still alive?

Seeing Datou was still hesitating whether to follow, when he suddenly discovered that he had already followed.

His legs hadn't moved, but the distance between him and Hu Lishan hadn't changed; he was following Hu Lishan forward.

The surrounding scenery, including the ground under his feet, including the Western-style building beside him, were all slowly receding.

The ground beneath Hu Lishan's feet suddenly began to twist, and ripples like those on water seemed to spread across the hard gravel road.

It was ripples! In front of her, the original wall disappeared and turned into a lake surface with dense fog.

Hu Lishan walked into the lake water, and Seeing Datou followed her into the lake water.

The cold lake water poured into his pants. Seeing Datou struggled with all his might, but his legs couldn't move.

It wasn't just his feet; his arms also began to stiffen rapidly, and his whole body couldn't move.

Hu Lishan gradually disappeared under the water.

Seeing Datou, with his stiff body, holding the satellite phone, disappeared on the lake surface together with Hu Lishan.

The ripples gradually disappeared, and the ground hardened again, as if nothing had happened.

The lake water kept pouring into his mouth and nose. Seeing Datou, who was about to lose consciousness, looked at the pitch-black lake surface and fell completely into darkness.

Died just like this?

Died in a disappearance case?

Seeing Datou wasn't reconciled.

But this was of no avail. He couldn't move his hands or feet and could only be drowned alive.

Huff~

A hand reached into the ground and pulled Seeing Datou out of the ground.

Seeing Datou, covered in lake water and mud, lay on the ground, vomiting repeatedly. Someone was standing beside him, watching quietly.

Seeing Datou raised his head and looked at the person beside him.

He Jiaqing!

He Jiaqing, who was still lying on the hospital bed during the day?

"Ho, how is it possible, it, it's you..."

"You should say thank you first." He Jiaqing smiled. "You just entered the New Land.

Didn't expect it, right? There's also a New Land in the Outer Continent.

Don't look at the fact that you have a fifth-layer cultivation base; if I hadn't saved you, you would definitely have died without a doubt.

Do you still want to go in and take a look?

You are a person with courage; I can take you for another walk."

PS: The character Seeing Datou first appeared in Chapter 5, only the name appeared.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 173 =====